10.02.15 - (PRESS
RELEASE) The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a new lawsuit in state
district court today challenging two Oklahoma measures which
threaten to make safe and legal abortion even harder to obtain in a state with
only two abortion providers.

The first
measure bans the most commonly used method of ending a pregnancy in the second
trimester—which could force some women to either undergo additional invasive
unnecessary procedures, incur additional costs, delay their care, or even lose
access to abortion services entirely. HB 1721 mirrors a Kansas measure
which was signed by Governor Sam Brownback in April 2015 over the objections of
local and national medical experts, including over 20
area physicians
The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the Kansas measure in June
and a state court judge blocked it from taking effect
a few weeks later.

The second
measure triples the state’s mandatory waiting period from 24 to 72 hours for
all women seeking abortion services--making Oklahoma the fifth U.S. state to
force women to delay constitutionally protected health care for at least three
days.

Both measures
were signedinto law by Governor Mary
Fallin this past spring and are slated to take effect on November 1, 2015.

“Oklahoma
politicians have made it their mission to block women from safe and legal
abortion when they need it most, trampling the rights afforded to women by
their state constitution in the process,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO
of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “When faced with an unintended
pregnancy, Oklahoma women need high-quality care, not forced delays or measures
that criminalize their doctors.

“Oklahoma
women have had to go to court a shocking eight times in the last five years to
protect their basic health and rights. This is simply unacceptable.

“We
look to the district court to once again step in and block these
unconstitutional measures to protect Oklahoma women’s health, futures, and
lives.”

From clinic
shutdown laws—which have closed clinics in Texas and threaten to
shutter abortion providers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama—to
outright bans on abortion and mandatory delays, women in the South
face innumerable hurdles when trying to access their constitutional right to
safe and legal abortion services. Oklahoma women face many of these
challenges, with only two clinics providing safe and legal abortion services in
the entire state. Rather than focusing on increasing the number
of policies that are known to support women and children, politicians in
Oklahoma have spent their time enacting abortion restrictions that do nothing
to improve women’s health and safety.

Today’s filing
is the eighth time in five years that the Center for Reproductive Rights has
challenged unconstitutional restrictions on abortion in Oklahoma, including a
lawsuit filed last week challenging an omnibus measure that blatantly violates
the Oklahoma Constitution. The Center is also challenging the state’s
Texas-style clinic shutdown law and most recently passed restrictions on
medication abortion. The state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the clinic shutdown
law from taking effect in November 2014 and a state court permanently blocked the restrictions on
medication abortion last month.

Autumn Katz
and Tiseme Zegeye of the Center for Reproductive Rights and Blake Patton of
Walding & Patton filed today’s challenge on behalf of Reproductive
Services, a Tulsa reproductive health provider with over 41 years of experience
providing safe and legal abortion to Oklahoma women.